Tagged: Peruvians Without Water

In the unforgiving dry lands outside Lima a war against the desert is being waged with an unusual weapon. Where for years and years only parched land could be seen, patches of green have now appeared and roses are replacing some of the thorny desert plants.

That’s where we find Alejandro Peña. The 66-year-old is a farmer in a land where farming would have been considered hopeless just a few years ago. “Our goal is to make these 74 hectares (183 acres) green. We want to make everything green,” Peña says…

The “solution” has been installed only a few feet away. It’s a rectangular net which measures roughly 20 feet wide by 13 feet high. In the morning, when fog makes its way up the desert mountains from the nearby ocean, the net “traps” it and condenses it, producing water right away. They call them “fog traps.”

Because of its proximity to the sea, this region is under heavy fog eight months a year. The fog is normally blown away by the breeze without producing any rain, but these nets trap the moisture and condense it right away, hence the name.

Jimmy Sanchez, a Lima engineer who has been installing nets in several places, says the moisture traps have become important sources of water for people who live in the barren, desert mountains outside Lima. “These nets produce from three to five liters of water a day. That’s enough to water four or five trees.” Sanchez says…

The moisture traps have also been installed in the area known as Costa Verde or Green Coast. The hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean used to be a desolate place where nothing grew. Thanks to the water collected by the moisture traps, some small trees and shrubs have been planted and seem to be growing. The name of Costa Verde may at last be appropriate in this place.

The goal of Peruvians Without Water, a non-government organization that has been working with residents, is to install one hundred fog traps throughout the region. This would benefit 15,000 families who currently have no reliable source of water…

Meanwhile, at Alejandro Peña’s farm the dry season has arrived again. The good news is that his aloe plants are almost ready for harvesting. As for water, it’s back to relying on trucks again. “The nets only help us in the winter when we have fog. It’s all about the fog,” Peña says.

The nets help the plants, trees and brush – not enough for humans. I’m sort of surprised people in Latin America haven’t picked up on this before. Spiders could have shown them how to do it.

In the desert along the Skeleton Coast of South Africa, people learned this stunt from dung beetles before modern recorded history. The beetles stand on their heads – as all their species do, even here in New Mexico – and the morning fog condenses on their bodies and drips down to be sipped up.